Today she is a contributor to ABC News, and last February she married Matthew Gilmour. Her abduction story was made into a made-for-TV move, and last year the Salt Lake City resident founded the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, to help adolescents avoid or recover from violent events.

Her captor, Brian David Mitchell, is serving a life sentence in federal prison for kidnapping and rape charges.

The night she was abducted at knifepoint from her family’s home, she recalled her mother telling her that she would always love her, no matter what she did or what happened. And her mother told her that if she followed God’s word and was faithful to Him, that God would always be there for her.

"I knew that what she had said was worth living for — that was enough," Smart said. "I made a decision then that saved my life. I told myself that if it was in my power I would survive, and that’s what I did."

She told the crowd of mostly women of all ages that, during the nine months of captivity, "Every promise that I said I would not do, I broke. Everything I valued was stolen. Every standard I had was crushed. But I still had my resolve to survive."

An admittedly shy young girl who never stood out and was more of a wallflower at 14 than many of her friends, she now travels the country to speak out about what happened to her and promote the Foundation she founded to prevent crimes against children.

"In the beginning, I was scared about getting up to talk to so many people," she said. "But then I thought, ‘Nobody knows my story better than I do.’ Now, I love it."

She told the crowd that "nobody is immune to adversity and nobody has a perfect life." Whether we are dealing "with a death, an illness, a kidnapping or abuse, we all have a choice we can make" to overcome it and survive.

The Healthy Woman program at South Baldwin Regional Medical Center is an empowerment effort to help women make healthier choices for themselves and their family, according to hospital officials.